14 lastic apparel, including fleece tops and vi- nyl stretch pants, cowboy sportswear, and VI trasuede- jacket -and - bike-short ensembles. Through Aug. 15. (Open Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 8; Saturdays, 10 to 5.) JAPAN SOCIETY, 333 E. 47th St. (832-1155)- "Shiko Munakata: The Modern Master of the Woodblock" presents the bold, black ink work of the printmaker, including "Ten Disciples of Buddha" and "Eulogy to Flower Hunting." Through Aug. 16. (Open daily, except Mondays, 11 to 5.) MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART, Columbus Ave. at 65th St. (977-7170)-"The Art and Life of Folk Artist Mary Ann Willson" A small collection of brightly colored, largely bibli- cal fantasias that constitute half of the remdining examples of the work of the nineteenth-century rural artist, whose ro- mantic attachment to a "farmer maid" inspired the novel "Patience and Sarah," as well as the recent Lincoln Center opera. Through Sept. 2 7. (Open daily. except Mondays, 11:30 to 7:30.) MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, Fifth Ave. at 104th St. (534-1672)-"Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks" supplements a retrospective devoted to the work of the N ew York photojournalist with samples of his efforts in other arenas, including poetry, novels, film, and music. Through Nov. 1. (Open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 to 5; Sundays, noon to 5.) THE NEW MUSEUM, 583 Broadway (219-1222)- "V rban Encounters" documents activist art on the Lower East Side since 1980 with ex- amples from such practitioners as the Guer- rilla Girls (anti-gender bias, pro-diversity), ABC No Rio (anti-Koch, pro-squatters), and REPOhistory (dedicated to memorializing earlier political movements with street signs and demonstrations). Through Sept. 20. (Open Wednesdays and Sundays, noon to 6; Thursdays through Saturdays, noon to 8.) NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, Fifth Ave. at 42nd St. (869-8089)-"A War in Perspective, 1898- 1998: Public Appeals, Memory, and the Spanish-American Conflict" examine the clashing ideologies and the divergent after- maths for two world powers. Salomon Room; through Aug. 29. (Open Mondays, and Thurs- days through Saturdays, 10 to 6; Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11 to 6.) GALLERIES-UPTOWN (Summer hours: unless otherwise noted, gal- leries are open Mondays through Fridays, from around 10 ur 11 to between 5 and 6J PIERRE BONNARD (1867-1947)-Most of the draw- ings in this mixed exhibition are rough, throwaway sketches, except for a series of studies for a children's book, which exert an irresistible charm, and a suite of music-hall caricatures, from 1893, that possess all the vibrant energy of Lautrec's work from the same era and milieu. An exquisite still-life of a vase of flowers, painted in 1930, re- minds us why we care about this artist: the vivid splash of one crimson bloom anchors a symphony of whites, magically evoking a simultaneous mood of sadness and tran- quillity. Through Oct. 10. (Wildenstein, 19 E. 64th St. 879-0500.) SHIRLEY GOLDFARB (1925-80)-An American painter who lived in Paris the last thirty years of her life, Goldfarb was almost un- known in her native country during her lifetime; this exhibition suggests that we missed out on an interesting career. In- fluenced both by the color-field school and by French conceptual painters such as Yves Klein, she worked with a palette knife to apply pure color in ways that invite intellection even as they beguile the eye. A huge blue canvas, from 1970, has the retinal impact of a work by Klein, but, with its carefully incised knife lines laid out in a methodical grid, the painting is closer in spirit to minimalist drawings by Cy Twombly and his contemporaries. And "Lime & Purple" has many more colors than that, smeared in thumb-size swatches, like cross-sections of Venetian-glass pa- perweights. Through Sept. 4. (Zabriskie, 41 E. 57th St. 752-1223.) "FOOD FOR THOUGHT"-Art about comestibles, by Milton Avery, Isabel Bishop, Roz Chast, Janet Fish, Jacob Lawrence, and Wayne Thie- baud, among others. Through Aug. 12. (DC Moore, 724 Fifth Ave., at 57th S1. 247-2111.) liON PAPER"-Works in many mediums by twenty-two artists from the past fifty years. There are striking contrasts: a totemic abstraction by Robert Motherwell, executed in a few deft strokes, and a laborious car- toon of a circus scene by Victor Vasarely before he Op'ed out. Ellen Levy's "Paper Clips and Terriers" is a complex composi- tion in charcoal and ink spray which creates a pattern of abstract monumentality remi- niscent of a Piranesi prison interior. Helen Frankenthaler's abstract monotype, of what look like lumpy female bathers. has an un- characteristically goofy charm. Carlo Maria Mariani's large drawing of a classical female head, rendered in pencil and pastel with an almost Ingres-esque precision, sprouting a pair of coral antlers in watercolor, mocks the very conventions of the traditional finished drawing that it masters. Through Aug. 28. (Associated American Artists, 20 W. 57th St. 399-5510.) RECENT ACQUISITIoNs-The Warhols are the standouts in this themeless summer show of contemporary American masters, particu- larly some whimsical drawings from the late fifties, before the artist found (and founded) Pop. "Elf," deftly executed in broken ink lines and brightened up with gold leaf, ex- udes eccentric charm. A pair of classic Pop boxes, "Del Monte Peach Halves" and "Campbell's Tomato Juice," from 1964, are wrought with a craftsmanlike care that seems almost touching compared with the later, deliberately sloppy "Mao" and "Sin- gle Dollar Sign." The exhibition also in- cludes a fine trio of pencil drawings by Larry Rivers. illustrating Jack Kerouac's "The Lonesome Traveller," and a witty car- toon of a hippopotamus, by Ellsworth Kelly. Through Sept. 12. (Sheehan, 20 W. 57th St. 489-3331.) SHORT LIST-JOAN BROWN, Adams, 4] W. 57th St. 644-5665. Through Aug. 14. . . . YAYOI KUSAMA and ROBERT FILLlOU, Robert Miller, 41 E. 57th St. 980-5454. Both shows through Aug. 7. . . . SHARI MENDELSON, St. Peter's Church, Lexington Ave. at 54th St. 935-2200. Through Aug. 24. GALLERIES-CHELSEA "S MALL PAINTINGS"-Niche work, if you can get it, by Ingo Meller, Richmond Burton, Joan Mitchell, Juan V slé, and others. Through Aug 28. (Cheim & Read, 521 W. 23rd St. 242-7727.) SHORT LIST-VINNIE ANGEL, KravetsjWehby, 529 '\ir. 21st St. 352-2238. Through Aug. 28. . . . JENNY WATSON, Nosei, 530 W. 22nd St. 741- 8695. Through Aug. 14. GALLERIES-DOWNTOWN CHRIS JOHANSON-Lilliputian figures skulk down backstreets throughout this series of painted junk-pile constructions that owe more to back-yard forts than to Red Grooms. With just a few shaky hnes scrawled on doors and boards, the San Francisco-based artist evokes inner-city decay and claustrophobia, but the heavy- handed writing (literally on the walls) about "vibes" and "trips" can jar you out of an otherwise charming Gulliver-like experi- ence. Through Aug. 15. (Alleged, 28 Prince St. 966-4707.) Y A YOI KUsAMA-An exhibition of early works on paper by this protean, delicately gifted Jap- anese artist strengthens her steadily ris- ing reputation. Dating to the early fif- ties, before Kusama came to N ew York, these small-format drawings range impres- sively from austere fields of black ink dots to brilliantly colored gouaches that hover between abstraction and figuration. Through Sept. 30. (Blum, 99 Wooster St. 343-0441.) BOOK CURRENT5 Great Lakes T HE August exodus from the city has begun-which means, for many of us, going back to the same woods, cabins, and docks where the family has gone for as long as any- one can remember. E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake," perhaps the finest essay on America's summer affair with the lake, .,.:>.:,<<:_;. l- i.. i. -. ' -.r. _ , -, . , , '-, ':;- .- '-'>; ". ; :;" ". was rereleased last year in his collec- tion ONE MAN'S MEAT (Tilbury House). Re- turning to the Maine lake he knew as a child, White worried that time would have altered "the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps." But he found that although he had changed much had remained the same: "Pattern of life indelible, the fadeproof lake, the woods unshattera le, the pasture with the sweetfern and the juniper forever and ever, summer with- out end." Not surprisingly, many singers of the lake have been poets, including-most famously-Sir Walter Scott C\The Lady of the Lake"), W. B. Yeats ("The Lake Isle of Innisfree' '), and William W ords- worth (' 'Preludes' '). For those who like a little spice with their odes, a quietly smol- dering new biography by Kenneth R. Johnston, THE HIDDEN WORDSWORTH: POET, LOVER, REBEL, Spy (Norton), reveals that the Lake Poet's life was marked by a good deal more emotional turbulence-including jealousy and lust-than tranquillity. Two new books of fiction have lake- side settings. Mark Slouka, in his dreamy yet sharp-edged LOST LAKE (Knopf), tells twelve stories about the summer bonds and betrayals of a community of Czech- Americans. Elinor Lipman's sharply drawn comedy of manners, THE INN AT LAKE DEVINE (Random House), turns an all- Wasp Vermont resort into a proving ground for a young Jewish girl's ambi- tions. "The Inn at Lake Devine" is the perfect novel to read in the hammock or on the porch. If you start reading it z right after lunch, you can finish before the golden late-afternoon light starts N spilling over the water.